Good morning.
Monday looks to be a sunny day, with a high of eighty-six, and northwest winds at 5 to 10 miles per hour.
On this day in 1962, the United States launched the Mariner 2 space probe to Venus. It was the first probe to reach another planet.
The Wisconsin Historical Society records Wisconsin’s role in creation of the typewriter, patented on this day in 1878:
On this date Christopher Latham Sholes patented the typewriter. The idea for this invention began at Kleinsteuber’s Machine Shop in Milwaukee in the late 1860s. A mechanical engineer by training, Sholes, along with associates Carlos Glidden and Samuel Soulé, spent hours tinkering with the idea. They mounted the key of an old telegraph instrument on a base and tapped down on it to hit carbon & paper against a glass plate. This idea was simple, but in 1868 the mere idea that type striking against paper might produce an image was a novelty.
Sholes proceeded to construct a machine to reproduce the entire alphabet. The prototype was sent to Washington as the required Patent Model. This original model still exists at the Smithsonian. Investor James Densmore provided the marketing impetus which eventually brought the machine to the Remington Arms Company. Although Remington mass-marketed his typewriter beginning in 1874, it was not an instant success. A few years later, improvements made by Remington engineers gave the machine its market appeal and sales skyrocketed. [Source: Wisconsin Lore and Legends, p.41]
Google’s daily puzzle asks about a man whose name led to a description: “What age in world history is named for the man who introduced pay for jurors?”